Traffic Engineering

Adopted Roads and Highways

Adopted Roads and highways is a term used to describe a road that is maintained by us at public expense. Once the improvements specified in an agreement between developers and ourselves has been completed to our satisfaction a road can be adopted.

A 'private street' is a road, which is not maintained at public expense. The road is maintained by the owner/s or their maintaining agents. This means that we, as a highway authority, are under no obligation to carry out repairs or cleansing to the street. We are also unable to enforce parking restrictions on a road that is not a Public Highway.

New roads that have been constructed in accordance with our guidelines are normally adopted by way of an agreement between the developer and ourselves under section 38 of the Highways Act 1980.

Existing roads will not normally be adopted unless they are brought up to current standards by the owners of the road. It may for example be unpaved or its surface may be in a poor condition, without kerbs, footways, surface water sewers, gullies and lighting or any of these features.

Unadopted Roads

We do not have a duty to look after an un-adopted road (also known as a private road), this is the same for all boroughs. In most cases it is the owners of properties or land that have frontages onto such roads who are responsible for keeping them in good condition.

If such roads are not maintained, owners can be served with a notice that would make them pay for maintenance work.

An un-adopted road could be dirt or a rubble track and may not have drainage or street lighting.